The Hubble Space Telescope (HST), is a joint mission project between NASA and ESA. HST was placed into its orbit by the Space Shuttle Discovery on 25 April 1990, orbiting the Earth every 97 minutes. From its vantage point 600 km above the Earth, Hubble can detect light before it is distorted by the atmosphere with 'eyes' 10 times sharper than the largest ground-based telescopes. It can continue operations until 2005, provided it is serviced every three years.
